Tuesday, 3/02/04
(Day 28)
Red=8.5
White=1010
Platelets=14
|
They told me today that I should get to get out of here tomorrow instead of Friday now! I walked over 1 mile today, and kept all of my food and pills down. That’s what they wanted to get out of here, so that ‘s what I did.. Today I ended up getting two units of blood, and a unit of platelets to help up my low blood counts to the left. The white count did go down a little today, but they say that that is normal, and nothing to worry about. .
Everyone keeps asking how my mother is doing, so here’s an update on her. It was pretty rough on her last week when I was going crazy, but she pulled through. She’s doing better now that I’m back, and I’m sure we will both be feeling better after they let me out on Wed. and we get to live in the same room instead of two different rooms by ourselves.
|
Monday, 3/1/04
(Day 27)
Red=9.2
White=1140
Platelets=21
|
Hello, again. I hope everyone has been reading the guestbook that my Aunt Brenda has updated. The last nine days or so have been rough and I went a little crazy.
I hit 1000 on the white blood count! They told me if everything goes well, I’ll be out of the hospital by Friday! I’m pulling through ok now that they cut me off of the morphine. I’m going to sill try to update the page, but it might not be every day. Keep in touch.
|
Friday, 2/20/04
(Day 16)
Red=10.6
White=60
Platelets=13
|
Today has been one of my best days here. I woke up feeling well, with no pain. They gave me a breakfast tray and I ate ½ of the applesauce. I was still hungry, so I ate ½ of a bag of personal size Cheetos for lunch time (because I am still on IV Nutrition). For dinner I ordered a cheeseburger. Hopefully I can eat it all, then I’ll be able to get rid of two of these IV pumps (one for food the & 1 for the fat.) Lastly, I walked an half-a-mile on the treadmill, at 3 MPR. Usually its only at 2 MPR, and I would be worn out. So hopefully this means that my strength is getting better. Dr. said probably not to next Friday or a little after then before I get to get out of the hospital
|
Thursday, 2/19/04
(Day 15)
Red=11.1
White=30
Platelets=24
|
Today I woke up with pain from my lower back into my knee bones. This pain is normal from the one medicine that they give me (Neupogen). The Dr. and a nurse said that once you start to get the bone pain, it is a signal that the new marrow is working, and we just use the Neupogen to increase the growth so that I can get out of here sooner. Also, you may notice that my white cells went down today from yesterday. That is also normal. The Neupogen creates lots of cells, but from time to time, it stops and the counts lower a little. The Dr. said not to worry too much about the white count until it gets over the 1000 mark. Lastly, I ate real food again today. I was just on the IV neutrition, but my mouth was able to handle a few mini-ravaolies. So, that is the next stop, start eating real food again.
|
Wednesday, 2/18/04
(Day 14)
Red=8.8
White=40
Platelets=21
|
Today I am feeling a little off my rocker again. Things are confusing, and it’s even hard to ring together a string of words to finish these little updates. I’m still going to be updating the site, but it may change look in a few days. Well, back to today. An infectious Disease Dr. Came to see me for the second time today. I have had a few ‘mild’ fevers, so they want to try to find out what they were from so that I can get off of all of the high strength antibiotics that I’m on now. The white cells will be fluctulating for a while as it sets in place. When it realy starts working, the white cells will add 7500+ Cells each day. Once they get over 1000 than I get out of the hospital.
|
Tuesday, 2/17/04
(Day 13)
Red=9.4
White=60
Platelets=23
|
Sorry I didn’t update yesterday. I walked a mile during the time that I usually update the site, so that made me tired, and could not think very well to be able to update it. I went through the last chemo with just a little nauseous, and no throwing-up. Now all of the chemo is through and I just have to sit and wait.
|
Monday, 2/16/04
(Day 12)
Red=9.7
White=10
Platelets=27
|
Today went a lot better than I thought it would. I guess that the last dose or two of he chemo isn’t as potent as the first 2 that I got. I am starting to feel the chemo now, so the side effects might be lingering around to attack tomorrow. I think that the first Dr., Dr. Andresen is back to visit every day again, so I guess their hospital shifts are two weeks each. This is better for us, because we like Dr. Andresen better the Dr. Bowel. First thing in the morning today I got my Monday Morning X-Ray. No report on how it looks though. The funny thing that happened today was when an a Dr. that studies infections in people came down to see me. He was at the point in the exam that I had to lower my pants. At this point, he looked over to my mother and asked her to leave the room and close the door behind her. So she did. Then after the exam, the Dr. went to the door and let my mom into the room he stating, “He’s Got The Goods.” (In exact quotes, and then nothing more until he started talking with me again. Saying that he couldn’t find anything that would require antibiotics.)
|
Sunday, 2/15/04
(Day 11)
Red=9.8
White=50
Platelets=18
|
Update 2 Updated at 5:22 Mon. Morning: Today I needed two units of blood and a unit of platelets. As mentioned earlier, I just slept most of the day. One interesting thing happened at breakfast (Thanks for keeping the facts straight Aunt B). I had been given my tray and by the time that I had sat up and got ready to get eating, for some reason I took my whole tray and flipped it onto the floor. The glass was breaking, milk and juice flying through the air, and I couldn’t do anything about it. (I want to remind you all that I was still a little messed up in the head from all of the drugs that they have given me.)
Update 1 (when I was feeling crappy): I hope everyone’s Valentines Day went well and you all had a good time. My two aunts (Brenda and Carol) stopped in today like last week. They brought some Scratch Off Ohio Lotto Tickets and we won $25. other than that, I’ve been sleeping all morning and I received my last chemo today!!!!! So now I just have to wait two or three weeks for the new marrow to grow. Well, I’ve got to now. Getting harder to type, so sorry for any typing mistakes.
|
Saturday, 2/14/04
(Day 10)
Red=10.1
White=40
Platelets=8
|
Happy Valentines Day! To Everyone. ( I’m still single like usual, but that’s going to have to change one of these days.) So, now on to my day.. Crystal and Brandon came down around 11:00 today. We showed them around the place and then we ended up watching “Adam Sandler’s 8 Crazy nights” before they went home. My mom went to get her hair cut, but it didn’t get cut until 3 hours after the appointment time. The hose fell out of one of my glass IV Bottles, so now they have to rig it up with a piece of tape so that doesn’t fall out again. Also I wanted to Let Matt know that I got his letter from the comedy show. Thanks, It helps. Lastly I wanted to let Sarah and Vinny know that I got their Get well card, thanks.
|
Friday, 2/13/04
(Day 9)
Red=9.0
White=40
Platelets=9
|
Well, as I promised, I’m feeling better today. It’s only 11am and I have already walked half a mile, and am going to hop into the shower in a few minutes once I get more platelets. My mouth is feeling better than it has in the longest time. Only one more dose of chemo (On Sunday.) So a few days after that I’ll be just sitting here waiting for the transplant to work, and I won’t be getting any more of that stupid chemo.
|
Thursday, 2/12/04
(Day 8)
Red=10.6
White=10
Platelets=18
|
Note: sorry if something doesn’t make too much sense, because they upped my morphine today, so it may take a day or two for me to get used to it.
Well, a few hours after last talking, I suddenly threw up and felt pretty bad again. Luckily I was able to get the nausea medication quickly and this nausea mediation also makes me sleepy, so I was able to head back off to sleep until about noon. Well, that will do it for today, I should feel fine Friday, and Saturday, So we’ll see ya then.
|
Wednesday, 2/11/04
(Day 7)
Red=10.3
White=20
Platelets=14
|
I felt horrible all day today. The reason I’m feeling so bad is that they gave me a dose of chemotherapy yesterday to help with the transplant process. This was the third time they gave me this drug, and each time I had felt like crap the day after. Luckily I only have to get this chemo one more time. Sunday I think. Because I felt so bad, I slept most of the day. I woke up for an hour or two to shower, and then I slept on through to midnight (When I decided to update the site.) I’m feeling better now than I was earlier, but I’m going to go back to sleep once I post the site so that I will hopefully feel well tomorrow.
|
Tuesday, 2/10/04
(Day 6)
Red=10.2
White=20
Platelets=15
|
Update 2: I ran into another patient in the family room who has been here for five weeks. I guess his transplant did not catch, so they are going back to the donor for another transplant. The Nutrition IV is making it so that I don’t need to eat, but I’m still craving all kinds of food. Unfortunately sometimes I end up giving in to the craving and it ends up being something that hurts my throat, so then I my throat ends up hurting for a few hours.
Update 1: The nurses woke me up 4 times this morning from 4:30 to 8. Usually they just wake me up once at 4:30 and the next three times they are quiet enough to let me sleep. They started my Nutrition IV at 10 last night. It lasts 24 hours and then I get another one. It looks like a giant bag of pee! They are starting me out on a 1000 calorie diet to see how I tolerate it and then moving up from there. I’m getting more platelets as we speak. The social worker stopped by today asking how I was doing, and he commented that they have weakly meeting about the patients and he said that all the doctors say that I am doing extremely well . I did end up shaving my head today, and I got a two pull IV stand.
|
Monday, 2/9/04
(Day 5)
Red=9.1
White=20
Platelets=15
|
I had my Monday morning chest X-Ray today. That took two hours. I am going to get two units of blood and a unit of platelets today to help bring those counts up. Overall I’m feeling better today. The Dr. upped my Morphine from 0.5ml/hour to 1.0ml/hour to help me be able to sleep better at night, and so that my mouth doesn’t hurt as much. My hair is officially starting to fall out! I have already shaved off my facial hair, and will shave the rest of my head either late tonight or tomorrow. I’m not eating as much as the Dr. would like, so they are going to start me on a nutrition IV sometime today. Oh yea, I was looking through my chart when I was waiting for the X-Ray this morning and found out that the donor has A+ blood just like me! They can do transplants from different blood types, and they do work. However, I think that there may be a few more minor side effects if the donor’s blood is different. For instance, when the donor’s marrow starts to make more blood cells and my body is used to a different type, my body might have trouble adjusting.
P.S. If you know of anything that you would like to see on the web site, leave a note in the guestbook, or e-mail me and I’ll see what I can do.
|
Sunday, 2/08/04
(Day 4)
Red=9.6
White=50
Platelets=15
|
Today ended up not being too bad of a day. I was still having troubles sleeping, but I made them give me more morphine, and I was able to get to sleep. (Man, does that morphine give me weird dreams.) I’m also learning to handle some of the harder foods that hurt as they go down, so that I can still eat decent meals. My aunts Carol and Brenda came down to see me again. They took my mom to a Wall- Mart they found directions to, so now we know where to go to get food or supplies. I walked a half/mile today, but I should have walked more because I had not walked for the last two days. I received more platelets today also. I’ve also decided to include my daily blood counts to the left, just below the date. They will be marked Red, White, and Platelets. Once the white count gets over 1,000 and everything else is good, I get to get let out of the hospital.
|
Saturday, 2/7/04
(Day 3)
Red=10.5
White=40
Platelets=13
|
Update 2 I am feeling better later on in the day. The morphine has helped with most of my pain, and now that I am used to how tired it makes me, I can handle it. I’m still not eating full meals, but I can handle snacks here and there to help keep energized. I received a bag of platelets today also. These platelets help my blood clot if I were to cut myself. Lastly, I watched the movie “X2” to kill some time.
Update 1 This one is an early update (6:30am) because I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling later on. It still hearts to eat and sometimes to talk. I have learned some tricks on how to lie in bed to ease the pain, so I would like to be able to stay up for most of the day today, but I might still sleep the pain away. They say the pain will most likely get worse before it gets better. P.S. Don’t be surprised if I am late on updating the site, it might take me two or three days to be able to sit down and get it all ready.
|
Friday, 2/6/04
(Day 2)
Red=11.8
White=30
Platelets=15
|
My worse night yet. The radiation has finally caught up with me. I threw-up three times, and my entire G-I Tract hurts. My gut feels like I had bad food to eat, I have bad hart-burn in my upper chest, and it feels like I have a lump in my thought just waiting to come up. The Dr. told me to take it easy on the food to help it heal. I had them put me on a slow morphine drip to control the pain, but this makes me sleep most of the day.
|
Thursday, 2/5/04
(Day 1)
Red=10.1
White=60
Platelets=28
|
More trouble sleeping last night. The neuropathy (stinging and burning) in my feet was acting up, so they were tingling all night. I finally asked for something about 2 am, and then zonked right out. Today I get a little chemo to help stop my old marrow from fighting off the new stuff. I also start on Neupogen and an anti- fungal medicine today. The Neupogen will probably make my bones hurt, like it has in the past. My mouth hurts in the morning, but once I eat something, that goes away.
|
Wednesday, 2/04/04
(Day 0 Cont.)
Red=11.9
White=100
Platelets=37
|
Well, the transplant went on without a hitch. It arrived promptly at 4 am as promised. I couldn’t sleep very well again, but this time it was because I was waiting for the marrow to come. When the Dr. came in today, he let it slip that my marrow came from Germany. Sorry aunt B, no spaghetti blood.
|
Tuesday, 2/3/04
(Day 0)
Red=10.6
White=170
Platelets=50
|
I woke up four times last night thinking that I had a fever, but my temp was ok. The nurse said that I might have something wanting to start up on me, so we have to keep an eye on it. Come to find out, my transplant is coming from out of the country! Because of this, it won’t be here until at least 4:00 am. I guess that the transplant is actually uneventful. It takes 20 minutes, and it’s just like a blood transfusion. There should not be any immediate side effects from the transplant, but they will pre-treat me with Tylenol and Benadryl just in case I have an allergic reaction. Being that it’s coming so late, they say that I’ll probably just sleep right through it (especially with the Benadryl.) They are also going to change my Day 0 to tomorrow because I won’t actually get it till tomorrow. They say that this won’t keep me in the hospital any longer, it just changes when I get the different medications.
|
Monday, 2/02/04
(Day –1)
Red=10.5
White=260
Platelets=50
|
I had a little bit of trouble sleeping again last night. It seams like nights are going to be rough, but once I get up and start doing things throughout the day it gets better. Today they started me on the anti-rejection drug for the transplant tomorrow. My mom and I started a 1000 piece puzzle to keep busy. That was about it for today.
|
Sunday, 2/1/04
(Day -2)
Red=9.9
White=320
Platelets=55
|
Last night I had a bit of trouble sleeping. Every couple of hours I would wake up and I was all bloated from this chemo. This also made it tougher for me to breathe, so I was feeling kind of down. Once I woke up, the nurse gave me some Lasix to help drain the water, and that helped quite a bit. Aunt Brenda and Carol came to visit me this morning and stayed until about 3:00. I am starting to get slightly nauseated from the chemo, but I’m still doing extremely well.
|
Saturday, 1/31/04
(Day –3)
Red=8.9
White=240
Platelets=72
|
Today I started my chemo regimen. They hung the first bag at 7:00 am, and I have 12 bags to complete. Each bag takes about 3 hours, so I’ll be doing this for a while. I have been sleeping a lot today, so I guess that all of this treatment is starting to affect my body after all. By the time I went to bed I was on my 5th bag of chemo. My aunts Brenda and Carol are coming down later tonight, but I’ll be sleeping by the time they get here. (They are going to take my mom out to Applebee’s to help her have a good time down here.)
|
Friday, 1/30/04
(Day -4)
Red=9.4
White=320
Platelets=86
|
I just finished all of my radiation treatments and am feeling rather well considering all that has happened. Bridget (One of the radiation techs) bought me one of those little blue fish in a glass block aquarium named Herby to help brighten up my room, but she didn’t know that I couldn’t have live fish in my room. That was very nice of her though.
|
Tuesday, 1/27/04
(Day –7)
Red=0
White=0
Platelets=0
|
Today I got my first there radiation treatments. They went well and I still feel rather well. Also, my room is slightly larger then the room that they showed us on the tour. So that makes me feel a little better.
|
Monday, 1/26/04
(Day -8)
Baseline Counts
Red=11.9
White=1490
Platelets=129
|
Today I got my admittance x-ray and got admitted to my room. I’m in room
M50-12. That is on the 5th floor of the M building. We found out that you have to use the back elevator to get up here though, because part of the floor is under construction. Today I get to just sit here and nothing big is happening. Tomorrow morning is when the radiation starts.
|
Friday, 1/23/04
|
My friend, Matt Perry is throwing a benefit comedy show for me tonight at 9:00.
|
Thursday, 1/22/04
|
Today I had my second appointment to get fitted for my lung blocks for radiation. I’m returning home today for my last weekend at home.
|
Wednesday, 1/21/04
|
Today I had my backup bone marrow harvest where they took some of my bone marrow to give back to me if my transplant fails.
|
Tuesday, 1/20/04
|
Today I had my Hickman Catheter placed and I had my first appointment to get fitted for my lung blocks for radiation. The Hickman Catheter is the hose in my chest that can accept 3 IV lines at the same time, and the lung blocks are lead blocks that block the radiation from going to my lungs because they would not be able to handle the amount of radiation that they are giving me.
|
